Ch. 22 — Souls, Trolls, and Demons, Oh My!
Ch. 22 — Souls, Trolls, and Demons, Oh My!
Ginny sighed and looked around the room. She drifted over to the steps leading out of the pool-sized bathtub and sat. The others moved to join her. Hermione sat right beside her and just stared down into the water.
“It started the summer before my first year, here at Hogwarts,” she said slowly, clenching her hands together. “We, my family and I, went to Diagon Alley to get my things for school.” She scowled. “There was a book-signing by a famous author that day.” Her face turned a bit red. “We’re not rich, my family. Truth be told, we have trouble affording everything we need.”
She looked at Harry. “I’m sure you’ve picked that up from my brother, Ron.”
He nodded, then had to hide a smirk as he thought that that state wouldn’t last long.
She glanced over them. “Anyway, there was a wizard there by the name of Lucius Malfoy. You’ve met his son, Draco.” She scowled at his name. “Neither of them are very nice. Malfoy, the father, deliberately baited my father, calling him a not-very-good-wizard because he doesn’t believe in that pure-blood nonsense, and because everything we have is second- or third-hand. Then he started a fight, an actual fist-fight!” She smiled. “Dad won.” Then she scowled again.
“He did that to prevent anyone from noticing he had slipped a very evil book in with the others I had.” For a very short moment she looked wistful. “It was a diary. Second-hand, of course, because it had the name ‘T. M. Riddle’ written on the first page in smudged ink” She sighed. “But I didn’t care, it was an extra! Something I didn’t have to beg for. I thought my parents had put it with my other books so my brother, Ron, wouldn’t get jealous that I had gotten an extra while he hadn’t.
“Imagine my surprise when I wrote in it that night and it wrote back!” She gave them an awkward lopsided smile. “Yeah, I know, my dad always said ‘Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.’ But then again, I’ve seen mirrors that talked to you, and where was their brain? And the Sorting Hat — where is its brain? Nobody had a problem with those! I just thought the book was like an advanced form of the talking mirrors.”
“And it felt good to have someone I could write to who I knew would never tell anyone else what I had told them. Plus, he had really good advice.”
Hermione put a hand over the other girl’s clasped hands.
“Then, I started to lose time. I would be talking to someone, and then I’d be in bed. Or I would be writing to Tom in the diary in the evening, and then I’d be in the Great Hall having breakfast.” She swallowed. “I wanted to tell the professors, but Tom said they’d take me from Hogwarts to St Mungo’s Hospital and I’d be hopelessly behind when I came back. But I never had it happen during classes — and he helped me so much with my assignments and practicals! I was actually ahead of everyone else, and at the top of my classes.” She looked across the room, not meeting their eyes.
“Then I woke up in a bathroom with blood on my hands. A few days later, Mr. Filch’s cat was petrified.” She looked at her knees.
“Blood?” repeated Harry, puzzled.
“Specifically, a rooster’s blood,” Hermione explained, shrugging. “The call of the rooster kills basilisks.”
“When Filch’s cat was found,” Hermione said. “Written on the walls was a message, in paint. ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir . . . beware.’” She said softly.
“Then, just a few weeks later, a student was petrified,” Ginny said quietly. “Tom said he had made fun of me earlier that day.” She looked up. “That was when I began to suspect something was wrong with the diary and Tom, because I didn’t remember Colin Creevey saying anything.”
“But nothing happened,” Hermione said, “until the middle of December when Justin Finch-Fletchley was petrified, as well as Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost. No one even knew that was possible!”
“Then I knew something was wrong, because just the night before I found myself in the first floor girls’ toilets with blood on my hands, again, and no idea what had happened,” Ginny said bleakly. “I heard Hagrid tell Professor McGonagall that something kept killng his roosters as soon as he got one.” She took a shuddering breath. “I promised myself I’d stop writing . . . and, for the rest of the month, I did. I even managed to leave the book at Hogwarts when I went home. But when the term started, I couldn’t resist. I tried to burn it, but it wouldn‘t burn. Every time I tried to tell someone, I couldn’t. I didn’t have any friends, no one seemed to like me. No one noticed anything wrong. My assignments and practicals were always top-notch. It was horrible.” She rested her head on her knees for a moment.
“I tried to throw it away,” she said sadly.
“Threw it right through me, she did,” Myrtle said, frowning. “It went right into my favourite toilet.”
“But it was too big to flush down, so I just left it there.”
“I flooded it right out before the door had closed!” Myrtle said proudly.
“But, then, the next day, I opened my trunk and there it was, on top.” She looked up at them, horrified. “I couldn’t remember getting it, but I obviously had.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Then Tom began taunting me. He had been the one making me black out. He had been possessing me and doing things. He was why I had no friends.” She sighed wearily. “In the first few weeks of September — only for a minute or two at a time — but long enough to chase away anyone who came close enough to try to befriend me. He’d insult them or say something offensive. But I never saw that, he hid it from me.” A tear leaked out of one eye.
Hermione hugged her, which led to all three Equestrians hugging her and promising they would be her friend. Myrtle looked on and seemed a bit jealous, if the way she crossed her arms and stared at them was any indication. Finally, they moved apart.
“I kept trying to resist, but I always ended up writing in the diary at least once a week.” She looked away. “But nothing more happened, except my blackouts kept becoming longer and longer. Then Tom’s true nature started to come out. He was a vicious, cruel person who enjoyed deceiving others and taunting them over his superiority. He especially liked to tell me how unimportant I was, how weak I was that I couldn’t resist him, how I would never amount to anything, how I had no friends, and never would.”
She was quiet, again, staring off into the distance.
Hermione sighed. “The first week of May, I was petrified, along with Penelope Clearwater. I had been in the library looking up dangerous creatures and had just decided it had to be a basilisk.” She shook her head sadly. “The Board of Governors of the school voted Headmaster Dumbledore out, and the Ministry decided to send Hagrid to Azkaban to show they were doing something, even if it was wrong and Hagrid had nothing to do with it.”
“Three weeks later, Tom made me write another message on the wall outside Myrtle’s toilets.” She swallowed. “Right underneath the first one. ‘Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.’ And then he made me walk into the toilets. He wanted me to see this, he relished my terror and struggling.” She looked at them and gave them a wry smile. “The entrance is apparently in Myrtle’s toilets on the second floor.” She looked back down. “The next thing I remember is waking up in a dark, torch lit cavern with an ugly statue at one end. On the floor was an enormous snake.” She shuddered. “Huge. Dead.” She shut her eyes for a moment.
“Headmaster Dumbledore was there, and the diary was on the floor with a black pool of ink all around it.” She took a deep breath. “He told me that Tom would never bother me again. I asked him how he had found me, and he said his friend Fawkes had brought him, his phoenix. That the only reason he had found the Chamber was because I was in it, which was why he had never taken care of the basilisk before now. And not to be ashamed of what had happened, as Tom had fooled many a smarter wizard than me in the past. Later, after I had told him the story, he said I was very brave and strong to have resisted the possession for so long. Many others would have given up at Christmas.”
She rested her forehead on her knees. Hermione rubbed her back consolingly.
“I think the reason he took her down into the Chamber that day,” Hermione said briskly, “was because it had been announced at breakfast that everyone who had been petrified would be revived the following day.” She tilted her head slightly and shrugged. “We all had seen Ginny with the snake, so Tom knew that he would be found.”
“But the damage had been done,” Ginny said forlornly, “No one wanted to be my friend. Most people just avoided me.” She looked over at Hermione. “Except you.”
Hermione smiled back at her. “I am well acquainted with being avoided, and it was clear it wasn’t your fault. Headmaster Dumbledore even said so in no uncertain tones.”
Ginny sighed. “Too bad no one seemed to believe him.” She snorted derisively. “Gryffindor, House of the brave,” she said sarcastically. “And they were all too scared to speak to me.” She shook her head.
They sat quietly, contemplating what had happened.
Hermione took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I guess it’s my turn, isn’t it?” She gave Ginny another hug and straightened. She squared her shoulders. “I’ve always been a loner, I found books to be interesting at a very early age. I knew how to read before I ever started primary. The other kids were intimidated and amazed, at first. I was quite proud of my achievements. And, I admit it, I looked down on the others for not being able to read or knowing as much as I did — but, hey, I was only six,” she said defensively.
“I read anything and everything. By my third year, however, the other kids were calling me a bookworm, a know-it-all, and teacher’s pet because I read so much and always knew the answers to the teachers’ questions.”
She shrugged. “They started to make fun of me, so I started showing off that I was smarter than they were. I quickly discovered that anyone who wanted to be my friend wanted something from me — they wanted to be my friend so I could help them on a test, or for homework. As long as I did their homework, they’d pretend to be my friend. Once they didn’t need me, they left, and laughed with their friends at how they had fooled me.”
That explained her standoffishness when Harry had first asked to copy her notes, he realized — and why she had been so suspicious of his motives for several weeks.
The three fillies quickly moved close and gave her a group hug.
“Then Professor McGonagall visited my family and explained that some of the unusual things about me were due to magic.” She sighed. “I was so excited. I was sure that everything would be different, that everyone would be as studious as I was, that magic would fix everything.” She gave a cynical laugh.
Her expression fell. “But it wasn’t. On the train to Hogwarts I saw, first-hand, that the wizards and witches were just as bad as the children I had just left in primary. Several were walking around declaiming how they were superior because their parents were also magical. Others, instead of being amazed I knew as much as I did, were appalled that I studied like I did, that I tried so hard to learn everything. I didn’t want to believe it, so I ignored it.”
She shook her head. “It was just like primary, but with magic.” She stared at the far wall a moment, blinking. “Halloween was a terrible day, for me,” she said distantly. “I had just tried to help someone with a spell — and they derided me. They called me a bookworm, a know-it-all, a show-off.” She sighed. “I could take that. However, then he said, ‘It’s no wonder no one can stand her, she’s a nightmare, honestly.’”
Ginny suddenly turned and hugged her. “Next time I see that git, I’ll hex him!”
“You shouldn’t, Ginny,” Hermione said reproachfully, “he is your brother, after all.”
She snorted. “Not that he ever acknowledges that,” she growled.
Hermione smirked, then turned serious. “I ran and hid in the girls’ toilets on the first floor and refused to come out. I had a good long think. I decided that there really wasn’t any difference between the magical and non-magical worlds, except behaviour that was forbidden there, that would get you in trouble with the teachers, suspended from school, was perfectly acceptable in the magical world. Not to mention that it was obvious that some students were clearly favoured over others.
“And the Professors? If a non-magical teacher ever acted the way Professor Snape did in class, he would be out of job by the end of the day. And yet, here, his attitude is considered perfectly fine. None of the other teachers try to rein him in.” She shook her head sadly and sighed.
“If there isn’t any difference between the kids except that the magical ones were meaner and more vicious, and the magical world condoned that awful treatment, then I didn’t want any part of it! I resolved to go to Professor McGonagall in the morning and ask to go home.” She blinked. “Which would mean they would bind my magic and remove all my memories of Hogwarts and the magical world.” She sighed despondently. “Magic may be wonderful, but the people certainly weren’t.”
Harry and the fillies were staring at her, sickened, and wondering just what kind of world they had been thrown into. Ginny just kept hugging Hermione.
“Unfortunately,” she continued, “I missed the Halloween Feast and the alert that a troll had somehow managed to get into the castle. Even worse, I discovered this fact when the troll came into the very room I was hiding in, the girls’ toilets.” It was her turn to shudder in horror at the memory. “Suffice to say, it is not an experience I would ever want to repeat.”
She shuddered again. “When the troll came in, I screamed.” She took a deep calming breath. “The troll was about twelve feet tall, very stupid, very strong, very mean. He also had a huge club. My scream attracted his attention. He trashed the entire room trying to get at me. He finally cornered me and swung his club.” Tears started down her face. “If it hit me, I knew I would die. At the last second I tried to escape by diving between his legs. He smashed my legs and I passed out.” She sniffed and wiped at her face with her wet hand. It didn’t help that much.
“I woke in the Hospital Wing here at Hogwarts. Apparently, when I passed out I was almost under him and he was too busy looking at where I had been to notice where I was. That was where the Headmaster found me. He told me later a portrait had seen the troll go into the corridor with the toilets and alerted him.”
Her face was red and blotchy from crying.
The fillies were crying, too, and they again went into a group hug with the witch.
“I spent a week in hospital having my legs regrown,” she finally continued. “I told Professor McGonagall about my decision to leave. She called the Headmaster. We had a long talk. Ron got detention every night for a month. Professor McGonagall said she had had a word with Gryffindor House, and they were on thin ice, as far as she was concerned. She told me that I should wait until the end of the school year, summer hols, before making a decision. She promised I would find the magical world worth staying a part of. She even promised me special lessons.”
Hermione rolled her shoulders and sighed. “So, I decided to give it all a second chance. Things did improve,” she said reluctantly. “So,” she looked around the room, “I decided to stay.”
They drifted apart, again.
“Second year, was scary, Ginny’s first year, but it was everyone at risk, not just me. And while a few people, especially Slytherin, were derogatory towards those who weren’t pure-bloods, it wasn’t really that bad. A few confrontations where the professors were noticeably absent, and they quickly learned to leave me alone.”
She looked at Harry. “Third year was really bizarre. A convict escaped from the wizarding prison and came to Hogwarts looking for you.” She shook her head. “Apparently, he was involved with your parents dying, and had come to Hogwarts looking for you. He didn’t know you hadn’t started at Hogwarts when you were supposed to.” She snorted. “How could he know? The prison doesn’t have a reading room or get newspapers.”
She gritted her teeth and Harry could see her jaws muscles tense. “The Ministry, in its infinite incompetence, decided to post dementors around the school.”
Seeing their uncomprehending expressions, she explained. “Dementors are the demons the Ministry uses to patrol their prison, Azkaban. The dementors suck all the happiness out of a person, leaving them only with paralyzing thoughts of despair. They can’t be killed and the only spell that chases them away is the patronus spell, a spell few wizards or witches can cast.”
“The dementors, the best possible guards for a school full of defenceless children,” she said disparagingly. “Even when the creatures attacked the school during a Quidditch game — it was a miracle no one died — the Ministry refused to admit the mistake.” She paused. “Again, everyone was at risk, not just me.”
She looked over at Ginny, who was still hugging her, and patted her arm. “On the other hand, Ginny began to sit with me when I was studying and at meals.”
“She was the only one who didn’t awkwardly leave or move farther away the moment I sat down. And she even talked to me,” Ginny said quietly.
“We discovered we had a bit of common ground, what with both of us almost dying in toilets, her a pure-blood and me a muggle-born,” Hermione continued. “Just imagine, almost dying in the ‘safest place in England’ as the professors all say,” she said sarcastically. “So we began to hang out together when not in class.”
“She helped me with my assignments and wanding.”
“Showing someone else how to do something improves your own understanding.”
They looked at each other and smiled.
“My mom let me visit her this last summer,” Ginny said. “It was very interesting.”
“And vice versa,” Hermione said. “And yes, it was. And my parents got to visit for a day and actually see magic as Mrs. Weasley was more than happy to show off some of the household spells she uses.”
They all had another wet hug.
“Luna has been picked on by everyone in her House since she arrived at Hogwarts,” Hermione narrowed her eyes and frowned. “And worse than I was, too.” They had all heard the stories of how her mother had died in a spell accident, and the girl had not only seen it, but had comforted her mother as they awaited help. “Only, being a witch, she couldn’t drop back into the muggle world for safety.”
Luna understood them, the two witches now knew, thinking about it. One more reason why she fit in with them so well.
Hogwarts was turning out to be a lot more dangerous than Harry had every expected. It made him doubly-glad, or, rather, quadruply-glad that he had insisted his herdmates have the protection of spell-resistant, invisible armour!
Unfortunately, in his opinion, the way the humans’ hair covered their heads made wearing a helmet very obvious. Any helmet they wore wouldn’t have the slit up the back that allowed his mane to freely cascade around his head. It hadn’t worried him much, until now. Perhaps a headband with the proper rune-spells would suffice instead of a full helmet?
But he still had the gnawing feeling inside that he was missing something important in the message in the egg. Just what could they possibly take that he would miss? He didn’t have all that much!
۸-_-۸
They spent the week following Christmas exploring the Castle — Cutie Mark Crusader Castle Explorers! There wasn’t too much collateral damage — reparo was a remarkably useful little spell. There seemed to be an awful lot of “hidden” passages that would make getting to classes on time extremely easy, no matter how far apart they might be. It was no wonder that Filch could catch students who were out of bounds so quickly. He could get around the castle using those passages in a fraction of the time a student could get back to his Common Room from wherever he was not supposed to be if the student only used the normal stairs and corridors.
The Room of Requirement was perfect for showing their friends what things in Equestria were like. Those expeditions tended to take most of a day. But, weren’t the things created by the Room supposed to disappear when you left it? Then why was the tree-sap still there? Had the Room merely acquired some from the forest? Still, getting tree-sap off skin was remarkably easier than trying to do the same with fur.
۸-_-۸
On the first day of term, during breakfast on Monday, a feature article in the Daily Prophet disclosed that Hagrid was a half-giant, which was not really a surprise when Harry thought about it. Harry, the fillies, and the muggle-borns like Hermione, however, were surprised at the reactions of the other students. The Slytherins were almost gleeful, the remainder almost afraid. At the best, the students were worried about the half-giant’s status, to Harry’s and the others’ consternation. How could they be worried about how safe the man was when he had been working at Hogwarts for almost fifty years? Not only that, he was well-known to both the students and their parents. Not to mention, in many cases, their grandparents and great-grandparents.
The article also mentioned Harry’s three fiancés had somehow been brought to Hogwarts from Equestria. That he was a pony and they were not caused quite a bit of bewilderment. The explanation that they had been ponies but were changed to people by the God of Chaos was considered outrageous and ridiculous, and the reporter demanded that the truth be told by the Headmaster and the Ministry!
Harry discovered from the other Gryffindors at lunch that Hagrid had apparently been replaced by a Professor Grubbly-Plank at the Care of Magical Creatures class. He could only shake his head in disbelief at such outrageous racism. Then Hermione mentioned that the animal for today’s lesson had been a unicorn.
“A unicorn?” he demanded.
She gave him a long look, eyes flickering to his horn. “Uh, yes, why?”
He left the Great Hall at a near dead run on all fours, with the fillies only a moment behind him. It wasn’t difficult to see the trail the students had made past the paddock with the huge shivering Beauxbatons horses. Scootaloo swerved towards the paddock and was over the fence before Harry could say a word. She began using her wand to cast warming charms as quickly as she could, after she cast a wings spell on herself. It wouldn’t last long, but it made the horses more comfortable to see them. The six had spent some time after the fillies had arrived introducing themselves to the pegasi — who, unfortunately, were not really all that smart, with the vocabulary of a very young foal.
With the help of a translation spell Hermione had managed to find in the library, they discovered the flying horses could communicate only in short two or three-word sentences, concentrating on food and territory.
The unicorn was tethered to a tree and Harry made a beeline straight for it. He discarded his robe as he got close. He trotted up to the surprised unicorn. «Are you alright? Do you need any help?» he said as he trotted around the horse, looking for any signs of distress.
The horse just stared at him. «Can you understand me?» he said anxiously, and hopped from hoof to hoof in front of her.
She stared at him a moment, then nickered softly and bent down to rub her muzzle against the side of his face.
Harry sighed and cast the translation spell. “Can you understand me, now?”
“Hi, little colt,” she said.
Well, compared to her, he was barely the size of a foal. “Hi,” he said eagerly. “I’m Harry Sparkle, what’s your name.”
“Little colt’s mom?” the mare said, ignoring his question, and looking around.
“My mum’s not here,” he said, hope beginning to fade.
“Little colt cold?” she said, stepping sideways to stand over him, with her forelegs to either side. She bent her head down to nuzzle him again. “I protect!” the mare said soothingly.
“Can you do magic?” he said dourly, raising any eyebrow as he looked upwards, his head turned sideways.
She merely said, “You safe.”
He shot some sparks out of his horn.
“You sick?” she said and bent down to rest her horn against the side of his neck.
He felt a brief surge of magic from the touch, and the incipient headache that was forming disappeared.
It was a dejected group that slowly made their way back to the castle. “Just like the pegasi,” Harry said. “Barely brighter than a foal.” He sighed, “She does have magic, but it’s very primitive.”
The other three nodded.
They barely had time to grab a bite to eat before it was time for the next class.
Harry was sure the poor unicorn would be surrounded by a crowd of first and second years as soon as classes let out this afternoon. He intended to be there to help the mare. He could at least reassure her that the students were there to admire, not harm, her.
He’d make sure to visit her as much as possible. He knew Scootaloo had been doing the same for the pegasi.
The fillies were not pleased to discover, the following weekend, that the hypothetical “periods” mentioned by Myrtle and Hermione in the Prefects’ bath were a real thing. Being “in season” was nothing like having a period. Harry spent the next few days walking on egg-shells, metaphorically speaking, around the three irritable and irritated girls. He did not look forward to the regular recurrences Hermione told him were inevitable.
Twilight could not come too soon, as far as he was concerned.
In the meantime, they studied frantically to catch up with their peers — Harry to the other champions; the fillies, to Harry’s fourth year friends. Their attention to the studies usually meant they were too tired to get into the sort of mischief they managed in Ponyville.
۸-_-۸
«Somethin’s wrong,» declared Applejack as she paced back and forth in the Map Room. «Ah kin just feel it!» She stopped and stared at Twilight. «Thar’s no way Apple Bloom would let Hearth’s Warming pass without either coming home or sending a letter!»
Rarity, fidgeting on her throne, nodded earnestly, «Sweetie Belle would never be so crass as to ignore family on such an important day!»
Applejack stopped and stared at Twilight. «The letter said she’d gone ta help the Pears, but they don’t know nothin’ about it.»
«And while I expect the mail to and from Trotland not to be the quickest, I’d expect to see at least one letter from Sweetie,» the unicorn added.
Twilight frowned. Things had been hectic in the run-up to winter, what with the Zap Apple harvest, Maud getting her degree, Chrysalis having another go at them, and Harry disappearing — still no measureable progress on that front. December had actually been rather relaxing in nothing much happening. Only maybe it hadn’t been so uneventful and they simply hadn’t noticed. «What about your store in Canterlot?» she asked. «Wasn’t Apple Bloom supposed to be taking care of that?»
«That’s another thang!» Applejack started pacing again. «The mare taking care of it is really nice and does a great job, but all she remembered was that when she first arrived on December Fifth, Apple Bloom hired her because she had an emergency ta take care of and run off immediately ta catch a train after she gave her the keys.» She shook her head. «And while Bloom is a mite bit quick ta act when she gets a notion, Ah think she’s a bit more together than that!»
«And none of the Pears know anything about this?» Twilight tapped the letter on the table.
Applejack stopped again, and rubbed the back of neck sheepishly. «Well, most of the Pears have answered. Thar’s still a few Ah’m waitin’ fer. But they all insist that none o’ the family would ask fer help without first askin’ Pear family. But none o’ them have heard family askin’ fer help.» She frowned scowled. «An’ thay say there ain’t any Pears in Trotland.»
Twilight frowned and sighed. She looked at Rarity. «Trotland is pretty far away.»
Rarity looked back. «Five weeks, though?»
«What’s Scootaloo say?» She looked back and forth between the two mares.
«She’s gone, too,” said Rarity. «I checked when I was in Canterlot this weekend. The Weather Office said she’d been recalled to Cloudsdale.» She sighed. «I sent a letter, but I haven’t heard back yet.»
Twilight felt her eyebrows arch up. «All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are missing? »
The other two mares shrugged.
Twilight sighed. «I’ll ask Princess Celestia to send a diplomatic pouch to Trotland and ask them to make a welfare check on Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.» She smiled wryly. «You know it’ll probably embarrass the poor fillies half to death to have an Ambassador personally check on them.»
«Then they should have written, shouldn’t they?» Rarity said calmly. She relaxed a bit at knowing at least something was being done.
«Why don’t you, » the purple alicorn said to Applejack, «send another round of letters just to confirm they don’t know anything? Send it express.» She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. «And I’ll ask Dash to find out what’s going on with Scootaloo.»
She looked back at her friends. «In two weeks we should have some definitive answers about the fillies.»
The other two exchanged relieved looks.
After several minutes’ silence, Rarity said, «Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m feeling more than a little frazzled. How about we visit the Ponyville Spa? My treat?»
۸-_-۸
Stats
Page generated in 0.035 seconds
Total duration
842 users online
1,049,410 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Credit where credit is due, in this go-around Dumbledore's personally run off every threat to the school as soon as he was made aware of it. Aside from that whole dementor mess, he couldn't really do anything about that.
I know I may be wrong but Hermione/Ginny/Luna shipping?
I suppose if they figure out that the cmc are with harry, it might narrow down the search time.
Unicorn momma is quite hilarious, I've got to admit. I'd be cruel to introduce her to bacon though, imagine tasting that and then being forced to go back to your forest and never eat it again!
Still waiting for the dragon trip though, that's bound to be awesome as heck
9911481
With the CMC to their sisters, Hermione to Twilight, Luna to Pinkie, and Ginny to Fluttershy. 
Seems more like rounding out Harry's Mane 6.
9911520
When your children spend time with the Fae, they always come back strange, and regular food is ruined forever...
One question though? Why exactly Dementors were in Hogwarts 3rd year? Sirius had been barking around?
9911481
I think it's more like those 3 are going to join the Herd. Harry will have all 6 before the end of the fic.
When Harry learns what was taken, he will be FURIOUS!
He will use the gill spell, dive down, release ALL of the captives, and then...
Harry: *uses 'Royal Canterlot voice spell'* THESE GAMES ARE OVER! *blasts Dumbledore and the other school leaders into the lake* DISCORD, I KNOW YOU ARE WATCHING! BRING MY MOTHER HERE, IN HER PROPER FORM, SO SHE CAN END THIS BLOODSPORT!
My god..... What if those [Potter-verse] Unicorns are Equestrian Unicorns who somehow got trapped there, their magic slowly leeching away, clinging to the threads of sapience...
So, besides family and each other, there is nothing else anchoring these girls to Earth
Fantastic
Sad, yes but fantastic
Greetings, waifu 4, 5 and 6
Remember Discord admitted to the CMC he might of nudged things here and there. A small nudge to get Dumbledore in place to deal with the basilisk making sure Ginny survives. Another little nudge makes sure Dumbledore knows Hermione is in trouble.. Regardless of all his fault Dumbledore isn't one to avoid issues rather than deal with them
9911564 Because Sirius had escaped and was looking for Harry. Though apparently he has found support I will assume that is dog Harry saw in a previous chapter
I assumed this was Discord's joke to say the CMCs were actually in Scotland.
For me, it seemed quite out-of-character for Twilight not to suspect Discord when things annoyingly and unexpectedly gone wrong.
9911606
I'm starting to think TKepner has no intention of letting Twilight get to Hogwarts or the human world in this story.
9911624
I was thinking the other way around they're the ancestors of 2 of the 3 tribes and Harry has uknowingly been spending time with his adoptive great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmare.
9911680 So far they are odd Twilight and others don't know that anything is wrong. If it wasn't Applejack knowing there were no Pears in Trotland and the fact none of the fillies have sent a letter.. Especially during Hearthwarming they wouldn't know anything was happening
Worse Than Werewolves!
Just. Ask. The. Draconequus. Already.
9911670
...Wasn't he actually looking for Peter, not Harry, in canon? Fudge had given him a newspaper showing the Weasley family (and Scabbers) in Egypt, and seeing the rat gave him the motivation to break out.
What happened to Peter in this timeline?
Thank you for the overview of how some of the major events of the first couple books worked themselves out with Harry in Equestria.
People have certainly bonded for flimsier reasons than shared bullying, works for me as to how the human girls end up friends.
Recap heavy chapter, but I think it was necessary to pull a few things together.
9911762 going by this chapter he was looking for Harry. Odds are ultimately he was also looking for Peter since many other things were kept the same
Let's see if Detective
PikachuTwilight find the crusaders and Harry and what Discord did.9911606
I mean that does seem likely.
Well Rarity is about to become even more frazzled when they cannot be found.
I hope Hermione, Ginny, and Luna do join the herd. It's actually ironic, Hermione, reminds me of Twilight,(love of books) Luna reminds me of Pinkie(random), and Ginny reminds me of Fluttershy(a bit timid, though in her case it is around others due to noone liking her after the chamber of secrets, and isn't as strong as Fluttershy) Is it bad that I hope that all of the hogwarts girls become animaguses, but their friendship with Harry making them ponies(Twilight unicorn, Ginny pegasus, and Luna earth pony). Also I hope that not only do they return to Equestria with Harry, and the CMC, but that even after the CMC return to normal, that they can still use magic. I would also like to see everyones reaction to seeing Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo using magic.
Also after the second task, in response I can see Harry and Sweetie Bell teach the others teleportation to prevent it from happening again, hopefully teleportation is different enough from apparition that t still works, Harry never did attempt to use it. Looking forward to the next chapter.
9911670
Actually the plot of Prisoner was that Fudge carelessly dropped a copy of the Prophet outside Sirius's cell. Which featured a front page picture of the winning family of a raffle, the Weasleys. Including Ron's "Pet" rat, Scabbers.
Chasing Pettigrew was what drove Sirius to break out and go to Hogwarts. Everyone just assumed Harry was his target.
So really No Harry won't change that part of the plot.
9911475
He's the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, along with Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards (...however he gets enough time to handle all three full-time jobs is beyond my understanding, though) - surely he could easily 'pull rank' and force Fudge to stop being a bumbling idiot, free Hagrid, and remove the Dementors.
I mean, hell - if the MaCUSA and other countries heard of Fudge putting Dementors around a school, there'd be a goddamn riot and likely massive consequences for his government, such as refusal to do business with Magical Britain or similar. Being Supreme Mugwump, Dumbledore could easily let the other nations know.
Also run Discord run! The mane six will soon find out what you did, and will start hunting you
Hopeful exclamation: Sirius may be alive!?
9911762
he was looking for both (noticing that Pettigrew was within Weasley lands and that Harry might be in Hogwarts with a Weasley)
9911813
I'm not sure if we've ever gotten a straight answer as to what those titles actually mean, other than the fact that they're verra important. And, I also note that they didn't say how the year ended, perhaps Dumbles finally got fed up and sicced a fiendfyre patronus on the cursed things or summat.
I'm glad to see this finally said. It's one of those things where it's so obvious, but thousands of fics feel no need to say it.
*grin* Ahh, tree sap. Not even the rules of magic are powerful enough to keep it in check.
9911624
Ponies in Hogwarts by KittyrinnAiko has an element comparable to that, with the HP Unicorns speaking Old Ponish and being the descendants of Equestrians from long ago who regressed to a hunter-gatherer existence similar to that of the centaurs.
Once you get past the first chapter's sluggish start, I actually quite like it and the main character ends up befriending an HP Unicorn OC and adding her to the main cast.
9911734
Well, I'm not expecting Discord to do as Harry wants. However, I'm fairly sure he'd pop a letter in: Prince Sparkle, your Mom has no authority outside of Equestria, and you know it. However, if that tournament has another event that involves a threat to another's life, then do what the CMC does best, and wreck the place.
The unicorn mare was quite adorable. Simple thoughts and affection are what I imagine most animals would be capable of, if they could speak. Excellent chapter!
Great update
9911823 Well there was a large black dog Harry believed was following them back in chapter 14. We know Sirius escaped and neither Ginny or Hermione mentioned he was recaptured or killed SO I will assume he is alive and free
9912001
Remember Twilight has a timid friend who can and should give Discord a lecture on his concealing that he sent the fillies after Harry. Honesty would have resulted in much less panicked relatives.
9912181
I think I'd describe this chapter as a useful update. Lots of back story filled in and character motivations established, but in a lot of ways, it reads like the framework for the exciting things to come later.
Discord?...Run.
You know I just realized in If wishes were ponies.... Dumbledore completely forgot about using a rooster on the Basilisk.
things are going to really hit the fan when Twilight gets a handle on what is going on.
and when she finally gets to Hogwarts well the first story is going to look tame to how she will react as every thing comes out.
9911606
Except he can’t do that.
Undoubtedly, yes, he will be absolutely furious if they’re taken, but he still has to abide by the contract.
Also, I predict that there will be some minor issues taking the CMC. Cough armour Cough
9911813
Well, I don’t think Dumbledore actually has that much authority. He was removed from the Headmaster position, forcibly, was he not? (iirc)
Far too many people want Hermione, Ginny and Luna to join Harry’s herd. What is with people’s obsession with putting MLP characters and humans in herds? It’s worse than shipping because it always feels forced, whereas shipping only feels forced if you do it wrong (which is easy to do).
No, I don’t want Hermione, Ginny or Luna to join Harry’s herd, personally. In fact, I want them to stay well away from any romantic, lustful, familial, or any other kind of affection in regards to Harry outside of being friends.
Herd shipping would add nothing to this story, imo. The CMC shipping at least adds something, but the 3 witches? Nothing. At least nothing good.
I hate it when authors think that stories need romance to be good, because they don’t. I have the same opinion with TV series and movies. Romance in an action movie, or comedy, or what-have-you doesn’t make it better. It’s just annoying and breaks away from the good part of the movie, y’know, what you’re actually watching it for.
So seeing people in these comments being all like “Oh, ship these characters. Oh, these characters should join Harry’s herd” is just annoying, and I’m hoping the author isn’t planning to go that route.
9912698
Ah, that is true. Well, I am sure that is what Harry would want to do.
I am very sure he will either blast or just buck Dumbledore into the lake.
Harry: That is for putting my friends and my herd in danger. Do it again, and I will RUIN you.
9912845
Harry is already doing that. He told the goblins about Dumbledore not doing upkeep on his properties and he told the law enforcement officials about Dumbledore sitting on his mail when he was receiving dangerous stuff. Dumbledore is about to get blindsided by some stuff and this will only help his enemies.
9911844
The wizarding world in Harry Potter probably has quite a few cases where the position with the impressive title and the position with power are not one and the same. Dumbledore could quite easily be in a situation where there is very little he can simply do but instead has to rely on the access otherwise meaningless titles give him to people with actual power.
9911762
They ASSUMED he was looking for Harry. No one knew Peter was alive but Sirius, so they assumed his target was Harry, and in this timeline there was no confrontation for Hermione to be present at to learn the truth. I just hope Sirius was able to do Peter in this time around...but that also seems unlikely since Wormtail was the key factor in allowing Voldemort to be able to pull off his plans in this year.
9911813
MaCUSA, from what little we've seen, is just as incompetent and pig headed or worse than the MoM. Or did you forget that they had the world's most wanted wizard pretending to be their head of law enforcement for an unknown amount of time? And given their low threshold for executions and their horrific methods for doing so, they might find using Dementors to guard a school a great idea even without a supposed murderer on the loose.
9913854
You're talking about the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie duo, aren't you? The ones with Newt Scamander, who has no place being an integral part of the Grindelwald War? I haven't watched either, since the original eight movies botched the events of the seven books, and I heard these two movies were of much lower quality than those eight movies.
I just assumed MaCUSA was better than Magical Britain because they wouldn't have a ghost teaching history in a soporific manner or a curse on the DADA position or a Ministry thoroughly corrupted by terrorists.
9913896
Lower quality movies or not, they're the main source of info on Wizarding America. So yeah, their head of Law Enforcement was replaced by Voldemort's predecessor and no one noticed til most of NYC had been torn apart. They weaponized pensives and use them to execute people by burning them alive in their own memories, and their anti-muggle laws were even worse than the UK's until the Civil Rights movement, despite a muggle playing a key role in the founding of their primary magic school. And that's just the short list of stuff from the top of my head.
So yeah, MacUSA is just as bad or worse than the MoM. Or at least they were. I will concede that Fantastic Beasts takes place in the 20s-30s, so they may have vastly inproved since then...but I somehow doubt it. After all, one of Magic USA's favorite past times is a variation of Quiddich where the ball has a chance of EXPLODING in the player's faces.
9913947
Great; now I don't have much hope for Magical Australia being at all reasonable, if both Britain and the US have massive cultural and security issues... 😥